LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 169

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ADMINISTRATION AND PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION 169

Program Administration, Finance, and Support Services
and Ecclesiastical Administration, Theology,
and Church Government Planning Units

Option 1-Maintain the status quo. This means continuing to
cut the budget for national and international ministries by
reducing or eliminating programs. This will also result in
increased but fragmented fund development activity by agen-
cies within the Synod.

Option 2-Change the philosophy of the Synod by trans-
ferring programs and ministries to the Districts, allowing
colleges and seminaries to become self-supporting, and pro-
viding only the most essential services from the national
offices of the Synod.

Option 3-Change the method of funding. Here a number of
additional options are available: (a) The Synod appeals di-
rectly to congregations. (b) Congregations are instructed to
provide separate pledges of support to the District and the
national offices of the Synod. (c) The Synod receives income
directly from the congregations. The national offices then
allocate funds to District offices. (d) The Districts are in-
structed to allocate a fixed percentage of income for the
national and international work of the Synod.

Option 4-In this design all general unrestricted offerings,
bequests, special gifts, and other income made available to
Districts and the Synod (est. $70 million) are allocated in the
following manner:

a. 35% of each District’s receipts to be retained by the
District for the mission and ministry functions assigned to the
Districts. (Any District not requiring the 35% would be granted
the opportunity to select mission functions in the synodical
budget with which they would like to identify.)

b. 10% of each District’s receipts to be sent by the District to
the Synod for use in North American missions. This would be
allocated through a collegial process involving synodical and
District officials to Districts for mission projects the Districts
could not fund from their 35 of receipts retained.

c.55% of each District’s receipts to be sent by the District to
the Synod for the mission and ministry functions administered
by or for the entire Synod:

+ 25% for professional education services of seminaries and

colleges;

+ 15% for foreign missions;

——

Planning Assumptions

1. The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod will continue to be
a confessional church.

2. People want to bein mission. If the Synod doesn’t provide
mission opportunities, people will find them elsewhere.

3. The Synod has a real opportunity to provide world leader-
ship in confessional Lutheranism. It has something to
offer to the world.

4. The Synod will be a church which will take the changeless
Word and apply it to a changing society.

5. The composition of age groups in North America is chang-
ing from a pyramid with a high percentage of young people
at the base to a block with even distribution throughout.
This will affect church programs and priorities.

6. The population will continue to be mobile, and the Synod
will have to move with it.

7. Openings of new ministries will be on a national priority
basis. Funds will have to be distributed on a priority basis
around North America for the Synod to continue to serve
its present membership.

8. Some Lutherans in North America will have as high
priority items merger and ecumenism. Others will have to
put additional emphasis on North American mission and
ministry for Lutheranism to grow this next 10 years.

9. The population of ethnic minority groups is growing fast,
and sometime in the next century minorities will become
the majority of the population. The Synod will expand its
work with these groups and keep up with these population
changes.

10. The Synod will have to rethink its philosophy of higher
education and do some restructuring of its higher edu-
cation system.

11. The Synod will be able to utilize all of the pastor and
teacher graduates of the colleges and seminaries.

12. More programs of continuing education are required to
help full-time church workers in their personal and pro-
fessional lives.

13.

While continuing to emphasize the separation of the two
kingdoms of church and state, the Synod needs to provide
added resources to help its constituency reach informed
decisions.

+ 15% for all parish services coordination and helps for
programs conducted by Districts, supervision of doctrine,
study of theology. publication of official religious periodi-
cals, communications. church relations, financial opera-

14. The accumulated operating debt will be repaid. tions. and general and administrative needs of the Synod.

15. The debt on the new building will be repaid.
16. Strong Districts are good for the Synod.
-17. Changes will take place in sharing resources.
18. District and synodical structures wil] need to be changed to
make maximum use of available resources.

Goals

1. Continue to be a solidly confessional church.

2. By 1986 develop closer relations with confessional Luther-

“ an churches around the world and, where possible, work

together to spread the saving Word to all the world.

3. By the end of the century double the baptized and com-

municant membership.

4, Atthe 1983 convention provide a new method of allocating
resources so that all the work the Lord would have us do
will get done on a priority basis.

5. Atthe 1986 convention approve additional restructuring of
the Synod and Districts to make them more effective and
efficient.

. Districts and Synod together balance the budget in 1983.

. Eliminate the operating debt by 1986.

. Eliminate the building debt by 1986.
a > Planning and Working Together
On February 22—23, 1983. the Synod’s Board of Directors,
Council of Presidents, Council of Administrators, and senior
staff members considered a number of alternative methods for
planning and working together in the future. No decision was

reached on which of the alternatives should be adopted as a
| course of action. The relative merits and disadvantages of each

Option 5-A proposal by a subcommittee of the Executive a
Coordinating Committee. This proposal notes that from the
presentations and discussions on the assumptions and goals
for the planning units (summarized earlier in this report) the
Lord has placed tremendous opportunities and challenges
before the congregations and the Synod. its Districts, colleges.
seminaries, partner churches. Congregations at each District
and synodical convention are requesting more services. Mis-
sion fields are opening up at home and abroad. New tech-
nologies are providing different methods of communicating
the changeless Gospel of our Lord and Savior to a changing
world. More full-time church workers are needed to meet these
opportunities. Present workers want continuing education to
keep current to meet the ever growing problems in our society.
To meet these challenges we truly need to ‘walk together” and
“plan together’ as a Synod. No one component can plan and
work independent of the other components for that portion of
the body of Christ known as the Synod to be a healthy and
growing body. All must work together in a decentralized but
coordinated process. The emphasis must be on (1) improved
service to the congregations and their members to meet their
felt needs, (2) better coordinated services on behalf of the
congregations, and (3) better accountability to the congre-
gations for the stewardship of the resources shared with
Districts and the national offices of the Synod. ;
The 1979 convention of the Synod resolved to‘‘commititself |
to developing new methods for joint planning ofthe workofthe  !
Synod and its Districts, so that new work can begin ona
priority basis; that present programs which may not meet the ;
needs of the Synod can be revised or terminated: that dupli-
cation between the Synod and its Districts can be minimized:
and that resources can be shared in such a way so that

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warrant further discussion.